


Consolation

by Twig



Category: Impact Wrestling | Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Professional Wrestling, Ring of Honor
Genre: M/M, the looming presence but no actual appearance of AJ Styles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:20:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25178305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twig/pseuds/Twig
Summary: "Do you miss him?" [originally written and posted in 2007]
Relationships: Christopher Daniels/A.J. Styles
Kudos: 1





	Consolation

**Author's Note:**

> Continuity: ROH and TNA, early 2007.  
> Context: The break-up of Styles and Daniels as a tag team in TNA, and the teaming of Daniels and Sydal in ROH.

"Do you miss him?"

The question came out of nowhere, like a kick to the head that you didn't see coming. But that didn't mean Daniels didn't know exactly which "him" Sydal was talking about. He just wasn't sure whether he should pretend otherwise. In the end, he figured it was a futile exercise; Sydal would make it clear anyway. No point in feigning ignorance. 

"Yes." 

Daniels hadn't known how he was going to answer either until the word came out of his mouth. The truth of it startled him as much as the question. Even more so, perhaps. Honesty was to be expected from Sydal, but from himself? It was a laugh. 

Sydal was sitting on the edge of his hotel bed, looking in all the world like a kid as he rubbed the toe of one sneaker along the pile of the worn carpeting. They had talked about a lot of things since they started tagging together and rooming together. Superficial things. Nothing like this. 

The subject had been waiting to be broached though, hung over them like an invisible veil, but Daniels hadn't been tempted in the least to be the one to touch it. He hadn't thought Sydal would, but here they were. 

"Bet you wish you were tagging with him, huh?"

Sydal looked up at him. Daniels met that gaze, held it, and there was a forlorn expression on Sydal's face that Daniels didn't know what to do with. Was he suppose to console him? They were partners, yes, but they weren't really friends. Christopher Daniels didn't make friends. He had allies, the sort he gained from the principle of "the enemy of my enemy," but that was about it. 

Since Daniels didn't answer, Sydal looked down at his shoes again. "It's okay, you can tell me the truth, because I wish I was tagging with him." 

"I wish you were him, yes." Sydal didn't give him much room to tell anything but the truth, and the answer seemed to be one Sydal had been expecting. 

"Don't get me wrong. I'm really happy that I've got you in my corner. You're the Fallen Angel. I'd be an idiot if I wasn't happy about that." Sydal shrugged. "Just, you know." 

Sydal looked like he was about to twiddle his thumb and work himself into a state. The last thing Daniels wanted was an outburst of emotional honesty. 

"I know," he said, hoping that would forestall the impending flood. 

There wasn't a flood, but Sydal didn't shut up either. 

"I just miss him, you know. I miss talking to him. He won't return my calls. Does he take your calls? He probably doesn't anymore, right?" 

Daniels wanted to throw the book he had been reading, but he calmly laid his bookmark between the pages, closed the book, and set it on the nightstand. He sat up properly, took his time, moving to sit on the edge of his bed to face Sydal. 

"He's changed, Matt. So should you." 

Sydal frowned. "That's easy for you to say."

"Actually, no, it's not. But that's neither here nor there." 

But Sydal caught on. "Wait, it is! You guys became friends. Practically like two peas in a pod. You know, we used to call it a sign of the apocalypse." 

"Cute." 

Sydal half-smiled, a mild guilty look on his face. "You have to admit, it's kind of a mind-boggle." 

"Apocalypse averted then, we're not friends anymore." 

"Well, that's it!" The smile was gone from Sydal's face, and he was leaning forward, eyes intent. "He's not friends with anybody anymore. Not like he used to. It's almost like... it's like--"

The words were just waiting for Daniels to say it. He might as well. "It's like he's become me." 

The guilty look returned to Sydal's face. "Well. Yeah." 

Daniels shrugged. He didn't like the way Sydal was leaning forward, so he drew back. The last thing he wanted was this oversharing, this encroachment of the space he had carefully carved for himself. He was especially wary of Sydal, and he wondered if he wasn't a fool for tagging with someone who reminded him so much of AJ. 

Christopher Daniels was a very self-aware man, but sometimes his subconscious got the better of him. This might be one of those times. 

"The past is the past, Matt." He lay down on his bed, hands behind his head. 

"That really doesn't mean anything, you know." 

"I'm saying it so you'd shut up." There wasn't much of a snap in his voice, much to his chagrin. "I don't want to talk about AJ anymore." 

"Why not?"

Daniels sat up, frowning in annoyance at Sydal. "Because there's nothing to talk about. He has chosen his path, and it would do you well to choose your own as well. You can't remain a starry-eyed protege forever, Matt. You have to be your own man. Moping over AJ Styles' abandonment of you like a lost puppy is so unbecoming, it's disgusting." 

The harsh barrage left Sydal with a blank expression, but his eyes conveyed the cut of Daniels' words. Daniels sighed, but he wasn't about to apologize. Sydal, though, took him by surprise with his reply. 

"I was his protege, yeah. I look up to him, yeah. But he was my friend. He was yours, too. Maybe you can bury your head in the sand and pretend like it didn't hurt you, but it hurt me. I thought maybe you'd want to talk about it. I know we're not friends, but we're at least partners. And we were both AJ's." 

"AJ's," Daniels repeated, then scoffed. 

Sydal looked confused for a moment. Then his expression changed. Daniels didn't know what gave him away; maybe it was the tone of his voice or the look on his face, but he had given himself away. Sydal was the very face of the term "dawning awareness." 

Just like AJ, Sydal was startlingly astute at times, too. Goddammit. 

"I'm sorry." Sydal meant it, too, which made it burn even worse.

"I neither need nor want your sympathy." 

Sydal finally, thankfully, shut up. 

Daniels turned away. 

* 

They didn't talk about it again for the rest of the night. It was as though the conversation had never happened. Daniels was glad for it, and he resolved not to think about it. But that look on Sydal's face when he had realized the truth just wouldn't leave him alone. 

Bad enough to have lost something. It was infinitely worse to have someone know about that loss. 

When it came time to sleep, Daniels couldn't. He lay in the dark, staring at the ceiling, though as he stared, the moments between eyeblinks grew longer and longer, and--

"Chris?"

Daniels didn't know when he had fallen asleep, but he wasn't now. He couldn't see Sydal so much as feel him, the dip of his weight on the mattress, the hover of Sydal above him. When he extended his arm, his hand landed on Sydal's leg. He grabbed that leg when Sydal's mouth came upon his. 

Shock lasted a moment, then Daniels was kissing him back, his other hand cupping the back of Sydal's head as he deepened the kiss. It was neither sleepy nor ravishing, just slow and warm and altogether a very pleasant kiss. 

Daniels squeezed the leg he had in his hand. It would be easy to slip that hand up further, between Sydal's legs and cup his cock, take this moment further. But he didn't. 

He licked his lips when Sydal drew away. 

"I've always wanted to do that." Sydal's voice was soft, a husky note in it that contradicted the way Daniels always saw him, as a boy and not a man. 

"What? Kiss me?" Daniels was a little bewildered, but he tried not to show it. 

Sydal smiled. His eyes accustomed to the darkness, Daniels saw that smile clearly. 

"You know what I mean." 

Daniels didn't, not until that very moment. It had been a very long time since he'd felt that stupid. 

"I see." Daniels cleared his throat. "So what exactly are you proposing here? Some sort of pity fuck for each other?" 

The noise Sydal made was half a snort and half a sigh. "No," he said, in a tone of voice that suggested everything here should already be blatantly obvious to Daniels. "I'm not going to have sex with you." 

"Then enlighten me, Matt." 

Sydal smiled. "It's what you said yourself. What's the point in moping? You lost what you had--" Daniels maybe perhaps flinched a little. Sydal gripped his shoulder strongly. "-- and I never had it to begin with. We're not lost puppies. Neither one of us is." 

When Sydal leaned down and kissed him again, Daniels was prepared for it this time, no surprise. He met Sydal halfway, lips coming together in a warm caress. It felt good, but Daniels wasn't so much turned on as he was... comforted. 

When the kiss ended, Daniels didn't open his eyes. He breathed slow, deep breaths, felt the tingle and pressure lingering upon his lips. When he opened his eyes, Sydal was yet again smiling at him. 

"Didn't that feel good?" 

Daniels wordlessly nodded. The smile brightened. 

"I'm glad we had our talk. We should do it again sometime." Sydal patted Daniels' chest. "Night, Chris." Then he moved away, back to his own bed. 

Daniels touched his lips. Then snorted softly to himself. Of all the people in the world to teach him a lesson. 

Tomorrow. Tomorrow, they would talk. About AJ. About anything. 

Daniels closed his eyes and went to sleep.


End file.
